Speech and body language out of sync. If your mind is saying no and your words are saying yes, that conflict will be revealed in your gestures, and there’s a better than average chance that anyone who’s listening is confused—even if they aren’t sure why. In almost any situation where you’re communicating with others, you’ll do best by keeping your body language open and accepting.

Looking off instead of making eye contact. If you tend to glance away or lose eye contact as you’re addressing a meeting or audience, remember that facial expressions, especially the look in your eyes, can tell attentive listeners immediately what’s going on in your head. When people are engaged in an interesting conversation, their eyes remain focused on the other person’s face about 80 percent of the time

Tuning out when you should be tuned in. Do you have a hard time trying to be a good listener because you keep tuning out what’s being said? Especially when you’re in leadership, you need to stay attentive and at least give the appearance of being interested—no matter what.

Lack of engagement. Even if you don’t know anything else about body language, you’ve probably heard that you appear closed off and unengaged when you lean away or cross your arms or legs.In general, when you arrange your body in this way, you signal that you’re mentally, emotionally, and physically closing yourself off from the other person.

Nodding “yes” while signaling “stop talking.” Have you ever noticed that when you see someone nodding excessively, often everything else going on with them is signaling for you to stop speaking? Many of my clients are often taken aback at this revealing connection, which is clear as daylight once you become aware of it.

Allowing discomfort to win out over confidence. When people close off their gestures while they’re speaking, the root cause is often self-consciousness. Communicating with clarity and confidence is an important leadership skill. Being confident in conversation with others helps you get what you want and need and stand up for yourself and your values.

Lead from within: Effective communication is 20 percent what you know and 80 percent how you feel about what you know.

After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.